2023 - Bonnes Mares Grand Cru, Georges Roumier

The 2023 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is shaping up brilliantly, unfurling in the glass with aromas of cherries and mulberries mingled with blood orange, musky spices and rose petals. Full-bodied, cool and layered, it's rich but mineral, with an enveloping core of fruit, lively acids and sweet, powdery tannins. As ever, this is a broad-shouldered wine, but it remains impeccably balanced.

The 2023 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is comprised of four different cuvées this year. Some fruit was declassified and blended with the Bourgogne Rouge. The fermenters were full this vintage. The bouquet has fabulous delineation, with subtle mineral/crushed stone infusing the blackberry and blueberry fruit. The palate is supremely well balanced with wonderful structure and tension from the start. It's classic in style, though it will need a few years to absorb the 75% whole bunch. It will be worth the wait.

Six different plots in all, this sample is an assemblage of all six. All on the Chambolle-Musigny side. Two-thirds on 'terres blanches' limestone marl, one-third on dark soils. 75% whole bunch. Cask sample. Deep-mid ruby. Black fruits on the nose, cassis and dark cherry. Ripe berry fruit on the palate with well-integrated, modest acidity. Lots of structure and mass but not extracted. Dense with pungent spice. Long. (MH)